What is creativity and how do we channel it? In this unit, we will explore creativity in its many forms, from the creative arts in history and across cultures, to creative production in writing and illustration, to creativity in professional contexts.
Students will work with partners to complete a creative production that blends text and image to experience creativity as a collaborative act with a professional application.
Readings
Nineteenth-Century Texts
- Charles Perrault, “Cinderilla; or The Little Glass Slipper” (orig. 1697); illustrated by Harry Clarke (1922)
- John Leech, “The Great Social Evil” (1857) (image)
- Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market” (1862)
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865)
- Thomas Hardy, “The Ruined Maid” (1866)
Twentieth-Century Texts
- Anne Sexton, “Cinderella” (1971)
- Alice Walker, “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” (1974)
- Adrienne Rich, “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision”
- Mary Louise Pratt, “Arts of the Contact Zone”
- Scott McCloud, “Character Design”
- Additional readings TBA
Artwork
- Image: Richard Redgrave, The Outcast (1851) VicWeb
- Image: Augustus Leopold Egg, Past and Present, (1858) [No. 1, No. 2, No. 3]
- Image: George Frederic Watts, Found Drowned (1848-50) VicWeb
- Image: William Holman Hunt, The Awakening Conscience (1851-53)
- “The Best Illustrations from 150 Years of Alice in Wonderland”
- Index of Sir John Tenniel’s original illustrations
- Aubrey Beardsley, “The Slippers of Cinderella” (1894) (image)
Response Papers
Response 3: Fairy Tales
- Fairy tales typically incorporate elements of fantasy, magic, or animals to inspire readers to make good choices in their lives.
- For this response, you are asked to write an original fairy tale that inspires your readers to share your beliefs. You may, for example, choose to re-write “Cinderella” or “Goblin Market” from a modern critical perspective. Or, you may build an original fairy tale of your own, based, for example, on your “finding your why” stories and memories.
Assessment for Response 3
You will be assessed on the following two criteria:
- Imagination: Show evidence of creativity and imagination, such as with the inclusion of details that are emblematic of an imaginary universe, in which things happen that do not conform to our sense of reality.
- Message: Show evidence of purpose, such as through the development of a lesson or message that you convey in the story.
Response 4: Visual Literature (Directions To be Updated)
Select a passage (and quote it in your response) from Goblin Market or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to illustrate from a critical perspective. Paste your image into your Word document.Write a brief (250 word) analysis of your attempt to illustrate the passage. What effect were you trying to achieve? What was your critical perspective on the text?Resources on Visual Rhetoric: Getty Museum’s Principles of Design; MakeShapeChange; “How to Read Nancy“
Multimodal Posters
Important Dates
- April 18, Print poster drafts in AML 103/105
- April 22, 12:10-1pm, Present printed posters in Bundy Reading Room
- April 29, 11:59pm, Submit digital posters to Blackboard Learn
For your project, you will work in pairs to design two 11×17″ digitally created posters: the first poster will highlight your prototype for a professional creative collaboration; the second poster will examine the rhetorical contexts for that collaboration and production. Each group will print and present their posters at a campus symposium. After the symposium, each group will revise the posters for final submission, and each individual member will write a short statement on the goals, process, and results of the poster project.
Objectives
- Demonstrate awareness of exploring creativity, as evidenced by the imaginative and experimental elements contained in your creative poster
- Demonstrate awareness of integrating research and historical contexts into your creative work, as evidenced by the quality of your academic poster
- Demonstrate awareness of exploring the rhetorical elements of analyzing and producing texts in various genres, as evidenced by your reflections on the critical and creative process of producing both posters and presenting them in your individual reflection paper
Requirements
Poster 1: Creative Production
You will first need to choose the format and genre of your creation production: are you interested in graphic novels, literary journals, storyboarding for film, children’s books, YA fiction, science fiction, or something else?
Here is your chance to prototype an idea for a longer-term project (that you might later decide to build upon via a larger collaboration under the mentorship of a faculty member).
The first poster will be creative and contemporary, exhibiting the original work of group members. The format will be a creative and expressive design that best highlights your artistic visions. The content will consist of at least one creative text and one creative image that engages with texts and themes from the Creativity Module.
Sample ideas:
- Design an idea for a unique literary journal. Create a brand for your journal and include at least one sample contribution to that journal.
- Design the concept for a children’s book. Create the book cover and include at least one page of text and illustration in the book.
- Design the concept for a feature-length film. Create a storyboard of critical stages in the film.
- Design the idea for a science fiction novel. Create a storyboard of critical moments in the text and include an excerpt for one scene that showcases your story.
Poster 2: Rhetorical Contexts
Provide the rhetorical context for your creative production in a formal academic poster. The second poster will be academic, highlighting your critical approaches to your creative production. The format should be designed as a companion to the creative piece, but the information should be presented in a traditional academic format with columns and rows.
Address purpose, audience, medium, contexts, and research, per below:
- What is the purpose of your creative production? What is your “why”?
- Who is your audience? How are you addressing questions of diversity?
- What is your medium and why? How did you choose your medium (YA novel, film, children’s book, literary journal, etc) and how does that medium best communicate your vision, story, and purpose?
- What are the contexts for your creative production? Consider history, culture, and literature, including a minimum of TWO course texts.
- What research supports your creative production’s goals and theories? Include a minimum of TWO peer-reviewed sources.
Poster Presentation
Posters will be printed and presented on display in a campus event held on April 22 at 12:10pm in the Bundy Reading Room.
Resources
- Partner Submission Form (required)
- Professionalism: Showcase Tips
- Visual Rhetoric
- Printing Instructions
Rubric
| Concerns (Areas that Need Work) | Meets Criteria (Standards for this Performance) | Advanced (Evidence of Exceeding Standards) |
|---|---|---|
| Creativity Demonstrate awareness of exploring creativity, as evidenced by the imaginative and experimental elements contained in your creative poster | ||
| Contexts Demonstrate awareness of integrating research and historical contexts into your creative work, as evidenced by the quality of your academic poster | ||
| Rhetoric Demonstrate awareness of exploring the rhetorical elements of analyzing and producing texts in various genres, as evidenced by your reflections on the critical and creative process of producing both posters and presenting them in your individual reflection paper | ||
| Conventions Demonstrate competency with writing conventions for creative and academic posters, including public writing for visual texts, citation practices, and proofreading |